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Approaches for Communicating the Third Performance Management Rule Measures, Metrics, and Target

Chapter 1. Introduction

This report identifies approaches that State departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) take for communicating to both internal and external audiences for PM3 measures, metrics, and targets. The findings in this report were gathered through a series of interviews and a nationwide literature review that included all of the State DOTs and the largest MPOs. The findings of this literature review informed the development of approaches for each category of measures, metrics, and targets. This report presents those approaches alongside general principles of good communication and applies them to PM3 measures, metrics, and targets.

Some findings of this research include the following:

  • An agency looking to maintain credibility and public trust may find it a good practice to effectively communicate differences between delay and reliability, the causes of congestion, and the impact on or of potential investments.
  • PM3 measures indirectly track system performance that can cause visceral frustration when performance is poor. Interviews with practitioners indicated that travelers who see a dashboard that visualizes their lived experience enjoy the satisfaction of being heard and understood. This ground-level connection with customers of all types is the purpose of strong communication for PM3 measures, metrics, and targets.

The PM3 measures, metrics, and targets will be discussed in the following chapters. As an introduction, the measures and metrics include:

  • National Highway Performance Program (NHPP) reliability measures: two measures, one each covering the Interstate System and the non-Interstate National Highway System (NHS).1
    • Level of Travel Time Reliability (LOTTR)—The metric that forms the basis for calculating the NHPP reliability measures.
  • Freight reliability on the Interstate System.2
    • Truck Travel Time Reliability (TTTR)—The metric that forms the basis for calculating the freight reliability measure.
  • Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Traffic Congestion Measures.3
    • Annual Hours of Peak Hour Excessive Delay (PHED) Per Capita.
    • Non-Single Occupancy (Non-SOV) Share.
  • CMAQ on-road emissions reduction measure.4

1 For more details, see 23 CFR 490.507(a)(1) and (2). [Return to note 1]

2 For more details, see 23 CFR 490.607. [Return to note 2]

3 For more details, see 23 CFR 490.707(a). [Return to note 3]

4 For more details, see 23 CFR 490.807. [Return to note 4]